Semantic web services discovery based on I/O parameter relations

For the precise selection of services, this paper proposes an efficient method for discovering services based on relations among input and output parameters. The proposed method consists of two steps. First, like the conventional methods, the proposed method computes candidate services, which are executable with the inputs of a user request and capable of satisfying all the outputs of the request. Relations among input and output parameters in a user request and candidate services are compared to select services that meet a user's intention. For service providers' convenience, the proposed method automatically extracts parameter relations from the documentations or comments of WSDL or OWL-S descriptions. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme for specifying relations among parameters facilitates the precise selection of services. The proposed method of automatically extracting relations reduces the overhead of manually describing relations while not decreasing the accuracy of service discovery too much.